QUNU, South Africa — After the sermon was read, the 21-gun salute thudded and the “Last Post” played, Nelson Mandela was laid to rest Sunday in the rolling green hills of the Eastern Cape where he was born.

About 4,500 mourners filled a vast domed tent for the state funeral, with relatives, princes, African leaders, celebrities and members of Mandela’s ruling African National Congress arriving from dawn onward to say goodbye one last time.

Mandela was buried close to the graves of three of his children, on a hillside between his homestead and a highway in the small rural village of Qunu.

The eulogies captured not just the freedom fighter who embraced violence to answer the brutality of apartheid and the peacemaker who bridged the divisions of his racially divided nation but also the personal side of Mandela: his love of children, generosity, mischievous sense of humor and humility.

President Jacob Zuma sat between Mandela’s widow, Graca Machel, and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, both wearing black turbans. Some of the mourners, who included Britain’s Prince Charles, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, wept during the service.

Those who couldn’t be there watched on big screens in parks, squares and stadiums across the country.

For many South Africans, the burial was a wrenching moment of separation, a time that many had sensed was coming when Mandela sickened in June from a recurrent lung infection and never fully recovered.

“When the coffin went down, I felt as if it was the end of my life,” said Neziwe Geledwana, 20, of Qunu, who watched the service on television at her neighbors’ house. “I had a bad feeling, but I accept that he’s gone. He will not come back. I think our life is over because the one who fought for our freedom is gone.”

Although Mandela’s death has no direct political role — he has been out of politics for years — the ANC, which has governed South Africa for 19 years, faces its first election next year without the iconic leader around.

Zuma and other party leaders have to balance the desire to play on Mandela’s legacy as a proven vote-getter with the fact that Zuma — with his troubled record on corruption and the delivery of basic services — compares so poorly with the late president and his saintly image.

Zuma took a more charismatic, personal approach Sunday than during his appearance at Tuesday’s memorial, electrifying mourners when he sang “Thina Sizwe,” a noted song about the struggles of blacks to regain their land.

“We want today to express two simple words: Thank you, thank you for being everything we wanted and needed as a leader during a difficult period of our lives,” he said.

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